Global warming blamed for ice shelf collapse

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 26/03/2008

An ice shelf of 5,000 square miles in western Antarctica has started to collapse, scientists said.

The disintegration of the Wilkins ice sheet, the largest on the Antarctic Peninsula to be threatened, is more evidence of rapid climate change on the continent, they claimed.

The British Antarctic Survey said the ice shelf was "hanging by a thread".

Satellite images from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre showed an iceberg measuring 25.5 miles by 1.5 miles - the size of the Isle of Man - broke off last month.

A large section of the sheet, a broad plate of permanent floating ice around 1,000 miles south of South America, is now held together by a four-mile strip of ice.

The collapse of the shelf had been predicted, but is happening more quickly than expected, scientists said. It is thought the warming of the atmosphere, which has been happening several times faster on the Antarctic Peninsula than the global average, has melted more surface ice, which is weakening the shelf.

翻译：
全球变暖导致南极冰架坍塌

科学家说，南极西部5000平方英里的冰架已经开始坍塌。

他们声称这个南极洲最大的冰带，威尔金斯冰带受到了威胁。它的解体成了在此大陆上气候快速变化的证据。

英国南极考察队说这个冰架正危在旦夕。

来自美国国家冰雪数据中心的卫星图片显示，一个25.5英里乘1.5英里，体积相当于马恩岛的冰山在上月就破碎了。

在南美洲南部围绕着1000英里的广阔的浮冰有一大部分如今已经融化成四英里的冰带了。

科学家说，冰架的坍塌已经有过预测了，但发生的要比想像得快。这被认为是大气变暖使得更多的冰融化，而在南极发生的情况要比全球平均的快几倍，正是这个原因使得冰架融化。